Pinnacle Silver outlines first underground drill program at El Potrero
Pinnacle Silver & Gold Corp said it has outlined its first underground drilling program at the high-grade El Potrero gold-silver project in Durango, Mexico, as the company moves toward delineating mineralized zones at the historic mine site.
The company said systematic underground channel sampling carried out since it acquired the project in late February has produced 773 samples across three historic mine workings along about 500 metres of the Dos de Mayo epithermal vein system.
The work identified multiple high-grade mineralized shoots, with individual samples grading as high as 85.1 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold and 520 g/t of silver.
Pinnacle added that surface channel sampling above the historic mines has returned grades of up to 37.4 g/t of gold and as much as 2,280 g/t of silver, suggesting continuity of mineralization to surface.
Drilling will be required to determine the size, geometry and grade of the mineralized zones, Pinnacle said.
Pinnacle’s geological team has compiled the results into three-dimensional models of the Dos de Mayo vein and the exposed mineralization in the three mines to design a systematic underground drill program.
The planned program will test the vein structure every 12.5 metres along strike and vertically, with drill holes collared within or immediately adjacent to the vein. Individual holes are expected to be relatively short, between 20 and 25 metres. Pinnacle said the program is expected to total about 2,600 metres across 112 holes and take roughly six weeks to complete.
“The underground drilling will be a significant step in the development of the Potrero Project,” CEO Robert Archer said. “This detailed program will essentially be delineation drilling rather than exploration.”
Archer said the results are expected to provide a clearer understanding of the main mineralized zones and support the development of a preliminary mine plan, with follow-up surface drilling to test areas between the historic workings and less developed veins.
Limited development work will be required in the historic workings to accommodate drill setups and ensure safe working conditions, which is expected to begin early in the new year and take about one month, with drilling to follow shortly thereafter.
Source: https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/